WHITE PLAINS – Westchester County Executive George Latimer is proposing a $1.9 billion budget for 2019 that would up the county property tax levy by 2 percent.

The budget is Latimer's first since coming into office in January.

It comes as Westchester projects a $39 million deficit for this year after facing a $32 million shortfall in 2017. Closing those budget holes will have halved the county's reserve fund down to $71 million.

"That is an extremely low number," Latimer told reporters at a budget presentation in his office Friday. "It is not a defensible number except that we're dealing with reality, and we intend to take this as the bottom and start to work our way back up to what should be prudent and reasonable."

The budget represents a $98 million increase in spending from this year. Some $38.3 million of that comes from a state directive to take 16-year-olds out of the traditional jail system this year. Next year, 17-year-olds will similarly be taken out of the system.

There are no cuts to staff proposed in the budget, but Westchester has undertaken a hiring freeze to control costs. A number of retirements are expected by workers in the county's largest labor union, the Civil Service Employees Association, after its members agreed to a new contract earlier this year.

Employees had been working on an expired deal for seven years and officials believe a lot of employees held on until the contract was settled so they'd be in line for retroactive raises. The raises, which hit this year but weren't budgeted by the previous administration, contributed largely to the county's projected deficit.

The freeze will be lifted in early 2019 when retirements hit, Latimer said, and officials will assess which positions need to be filled or can be left open for extended savings. The county hopes to save $7 million through vacancies.

Under county law, the executive must propose a budget to lawmakers by Nov. 10. The county Board of Legislators will then hold several hearings and could modify the spending plan before final approval.

The county will borrow to pay $8.5 million in corporate back-tax settlements called certioraris rather than pay for them out of the general fund.

Westchester will also net $22 million from the transfer of Westchester County Center parking lot to a local development corporation. Latimer also budgeted $500,000 in additional hotel taxes from Airbnb and other similar sites who have not traditionally paid the tax.

Legislator John Testa, the legislature's Republican minority leader, said those methods were some of the same budgeting practices for which Democratic lawmakers had criticized former County Executive Rob Astorino, a Republican.

"It seems that much of the same strategy is being used that the previous administration used, so I'm curious to hear what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have to say," he told The Journal News/lohud.

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Westchester County Executive George Latimer, right delivers his proposed budget for 2019 to Ben Boykin, the chairman of the Westchester County Board of Legislators, at the Michaelian Office Building in White Plains, Nov. 9, 2018.(Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

Testa said he was disappointed that a proposal to change the management structure at Westchester County Airport seems to have been abandoned. A proposed deal would have netted the county millions in income, Testa said, and helped offset the property tax burden.

"I think it was a huge opportunity lost," he said. A bipartisan committee had vetted the proposals.

Revenue from the never-realized deal contributed to the 2017 sapping of the reserve fund.

Lawmakers will now review Latimer's proposal and can make changes to it before voting whether or not to approve it. The state imposes a tax cap of 2 percent, but the county can technically remain within the cap up to 5.7 percent due to carryovers from previous years and other exemptions.

County taxes make up roughly 20 percent of the average property tax bill, with the majority of taxes charged by public school districts, towns, villages and cities. The impact of the increase on an individual tax bill can vary from community to community.

The county property-tax levy was upped this year by 2 percent, the first increase in almost a decade, when the county legislature overrode a veto from the previous county executive.

Astorino, in office from 2010-17, made it an ongoing pledge of his administration to keep the levy flat but sticking to that pledge became increasingly difficult as costs increased annually. That became difficult after several years of reining in spending, and later budgets became shaky.